


The Art of Staying

by FunkyinFishnet



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: M/M, Male Slash, Relationship(s), Reunions, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 16:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13551426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunkyinFishnet/pseuds/FunkyinFishnet
Summary: Hideo Itami has returned to a WWE ring after an injury absence. Finn Balor gladly welcomes him back. The Demon doesn't.





	The Art of Staying

**Author's Note:**

> Set after Hideo's December 2017 return to Raw.

 

 

 

Finn is still pretty breathless when they get backstage. He doesn't say a word, even when it's just them in an empty locker room. Then he drops to a knee before Hideo.

 

 

There's a hand on his head, a light but meaningful touch. Finn closes his eyes, as sure fingers card through his hair, rearranging everything. He can remember the last time he felt like this. He can remember Hideo's voice and how his footsteps had sounded walking away.

 

 

“Finn.”

 

 

It's a low rich sound and Finn looks up at last, his gaze meeting Hideo's. Hideo sounds fond and there's something affectionate pulling at his mouth. Finn wants to draw blood and paint that movement. He wants to taste it.

 

 

Hideo must know because his gaze shades and his hand tugs at Finn's hair. Finn feels the Demon shift and unsettle. Hideo tugs again and Finn releases a deep breath. He's damp with sweat, clammy now thanks to the difference in temperature backstage, and the hard dirty floor isn't uncomfortable under his knees. But Hideo is here and the Demon will be made to answer him.

 

 

Finally his skin changes and two stare through a single pair of pale eyes. The Demon's lip curls and speaks a language older than the country. Hideo can understand him though.

 

 

“ _You're back.”_

 

 

“You are still here.”

 

 

The Demon doesn't laugh but he uses Finn's lips to mock Hideo.

 

 

“ _I know not to leave.”_

 

 

“It was not my choice.”

 

 

“ _You hid from him. That was your choice.”_

 

 

Hideo doesn't argue the point. His chin drops an inch, his hand leaves the Demon's hair. The Demon's fingers trace patterns against his thighs, different to the ones carved out there already. Both have meaning. Finn knows them; if he could close his eyes, to take a breath, he would. If Hideo knows both, he doesn't say. His hands trace nothing.

 

 

“ _How long before you leave again?”_

 

 

The Demon is immovable, challenging. He can feel Hideo's tension; how it singes the ends of the Demon's hair. He knows Hideo's power, his true voice. It doesn't silence the Demon.

 

 

Hideo's chin rises. His gaze glowers and the Demon's hair smells like burning leaves. The Demon doesn't look away, it doesn't move at all.

 

 

The Demon doesn't say how quiet Finn became in Hideo's absence, how much Finn had ached inside. How that ache had nearly choked the Demon more than once. And here was Hideo again, saving Finn who doesn't need saving, causing Finn to kneel, forcing the Demon to do the same.

 

 

Hideo diminishes Finn. But Finn doesn't see it, or refuses to. The Demon would spit but Finn won't let him.

 

 

“I am here,” Hideo says at last, an answer and a challenge.

 

 

The Demon shows his pointed teeth. _“So am I.”_

 

 

Always.

 

 

_-the end_

 


End file.
